A £30 million supercomputer, designed to predict climate change, has been
named as one of Britain's worst polluters in the latest embarrassment for
the Met Office.

The UK's most powerful computer was installed with much fanfare in the Met Office's headquarters in Exeter, Devon earlier this year.

The machine is capable of 1,000 billion calculations every second and is a key part of helping scientists predict the weather and climate change over the longer term.

However the "supercomputer" is also one of the country's least green machines. It uses enough energy to power a small town - producing 12,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide a year - and has made the Met Office one of the worst public buildings in Britain for pollution in a new green league table.

It is the latest embarrassment for the Met Office after the machine famously helped predict a "BBQ summer" which turned out to be another wash-out.

Maurice Spurway, of Friends of the Earth, said it is "ironic" that a computer designed to help stave-off climate change is responsible for such high levels of pollution.